While it appears on the surface to be an opportunity for Ball to claim a bigger slice of the backfield pie, Fox cautioned against viewing Monday's practice as a demotion for Hillman.

"It's just practice, I wouldn't read too much into anything," Fox explained, via The Denver Post. "We're evaluating everybody regardless of who gets what reps at what number. So, he's a guy that we want to get some touches and we'll go from there."

A running back's most important assignments in Denver are protecting Peyton Manning from getting clobbered and ensuring that the high-scoring offense doesn't lose a possession due to ball-security issues.

Hillman has struggled with the latter while Ball is a work in progress with the former. Don't be surprised if old reliable Knowshon Moreno once again is broken out of the moth balls for the Week 1 starting gig.